Morrigan Crow, daughter of Chancellor Corvus Crow, is born on Eventide. Those unfortunate enough to be born on this day, are predestined to die on their 12th birthday. As a ‘cursed child’, she is blamed for random catastrophes that happen in her home town of Jackalfax, from hailstones and heart attacks, to ruined batches of marmalade.
The Land of Stories: Worlds Collide is an adventure fantasy novel written by Chris Colfer, whose name kept niggling me, as I read this book. Yet it was only after I finished reading the book that I was surprised to find that the author was an actor in one of my favourite television series, Glee.
2018
This book is an encyclopedia of wild animals. The various ani-mal species, their way of life, what they eat, where they live, their life span, where are they found, etc.—everything is explained vividly and in great detail. I think this is a book worth keeping in schools and in homes with school-going children.
This book is a collection of four award-winning articles on environment. ‘Tapti Dharti Ilaaj Mange’ and ‘Paryawaran Sanrakshran’ were awarded in a CBT competition in non-fiction category on environment. The other two are taken from an English language book SOS from Nature.
This unique little book complements the title Walking is a Way of Knowing by the same authors and illustrator. This is a collection of unusual folklore from the world of the Kadars. It tells the story of how Kadavul the creator created the Kadars or hill people and blessed them with gifts of edible leaves, honey, tubers, herbs and incense, all hidden in the forest.
Two books based on oral stories of the Kadars, a small adivasi tribe in South India, have been written by Madhuri Ramesh and Manish Chandi who spent much time with the Kadars in their forest. The Kadars no longer live in the dense jungle but they walk its uneven, muddy paths every day.
What an attractive and unusual cover…the ferocious tiger is behind bars! The hard cover of this book has effective cut-outs of bars and the snarling tiger is crouched behind them, on the first page. The Gond author/artist, Dhavat Singh Uikey tells us that the tiger is an important part of the Gond natural world.
2018
One of the largest tribal communities in the world, the Gonds are found mainly in the forests of central and southern India. They are known for their distinctive art forms with vibrant depictions of local flora, fauna and gods, using natural bright colours.
Stumbling through Life is a collection of twenty-five small essays through which Bond shares various aspects of his life and of human nature, in his unique style of writing, which leaves readers thinking about larger issues in the end. He calls it his mini-autobiography, but it’s encyclopedic.
If your kids have finished reading the first volume of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, you can now hand them the second volume to read. The battle to end patriarchy is not over, and so it makes perfect sense to have more books with profiles of more wonderful women for the young ones to learn about.
Like A Girl is a collection of stories of 51 women. Many of these women are not unknown to us, several of them are celebrities. The women featured in this book range from 19th century heroes like Rani Laxmibai to contemporary trailblazers such as Dipa Karmikar. Along the way you read about the extraordinary Amrita Shergill, Leila Seth and Soni Sori.
Judge this book by its cover. A hand-drawn elephant, a monkey, a tortoise, a bird, a butterfly, and a somewhat rakish, thin, balding man with sunglasses border a background of dappled sunlit green. Welcome to the world of forests, its denizens and India’s eminent ecologist, Rauf Ali.
Sheshagiri Rao’s maiden book is a memoir—about a teacher who altered his perspective of a subject and turned his life around. Rao, an education specialist, shows us that any subject can be made interesting to the students if the teacher wills it so.
Many people know Sachin as a famous cricketer, some even believe that he is the best player of the game. But not many people know about his very gruelling and challenging past, which I think we must know to appreciate him. He is a very hard-working person and I think we can all change by reading his autobiography.
You can be different, yet lead a meaningful life and live up to your potential. You can be happy and successful too. Be yourself and do your best is what each story from the book seems to say. Stories for Boys Who Dare to be Different has some amazing stories that warm the cockles of your heart! Here’s a small peek into the book…
Books often serve as a bridge to another world. Maria Parr’s book does just that. It takes us into the world of Tanya (Tonje, in the original)—the pluckiest girl in the Glimmer Dale Valley—and her life full of innocent pranks, speed and self-confidence, and a friendship with a seventy something neighbour called Gunnvald.
When the Mountains Roared hits the ground running. From the very first page the book jumps right into the thick of the story, leaving you waiting eagerly for the next twist in the tale. The author, Jess Butterworth has fashioned an engaging narrative set primarily in the foothills of the Himalayas.
2018
First things first, this book is written for teenagers but is not well thought out and plotted. The story is quite good where one friend gets kidnapped and the other saves her. The story is a dystopic reflection of today’s world. It is set in south Bombay which is another way of being told that such events take place in the real world itself.
2018
Dangerous Trail by Shailaja Mohan is a young adult novel, narrating the adventures of a fourteen-year-old girl named Medha and a Siberian crane named ‘Comrade’. Medha’s elder brother, Arijit, is a naturalist who works with the ‘Department of Environment’. Siberian cranes are of special interest to him.
The story revolves around a poor girl named…